Dev Diary: Whats So Cool about Hellbound and the 4th Anniversary Edition

On Wednesday, April 23, 2008, NCsoft will be
celebrating the four-year anniversary of Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne’s
launch in both North America and Europe. This fantasy massively multiplayer
online role-playing game is one of the premier player-versus-player (PvP) games
in the market today, with a customer reach of over nineteen million players
worldwide. With the game’s four-year anniversary coming, we wanted to do
something special for not only our current players, who have been with us for a
very long time now, but also appeal to those who have played in the past to come
back and celebrate with us.

The Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne – 4th
Anniversary Edition box includes a special edition DVD featuring the
Lineage II game client and all of the previously released expansions, all on
one convenient disc. If you’re new to the game or just haven’t played in awhile,
you can just use the DVD to quickly update to the most current version. Those
that buy the box can make use of a whopping sixty days of play time and
get access to two exclusive in-game items, the Black Half Mask (a special head
accessory) and a Pig Lollipop (which transforms you into a loveable pig – it’s
fun!).

We’re also offering free or discounted Player
Services for veteran players, depending on how long players have held an
account. If you created a Lineage II account one year or more ago you
will receive a free Character Gender Change. An account two or more years old
will additionally get a half-price Character Name Change, and really
long-term players (three or more years old) will earn all of that plus a
half-price Server Transfer. Finally, the 4th Anniversary Edition
box will include a mini poster with a map of the lands of Aden.

With the shipment of Lineage II: The Chaotic
Throne – 4th Anniversary Edition we will also be releasing the
next content update for the game: Hellbound. Also included in the 4th
Anniversary Edition DVD, the Hellbound update adds many new changes
and improvements to the Kamael, our last major expansion. Once you earn
the trust of the local Hellbound natives, you will be able to gain access the
Steel Citadel, a massive four-tower fortress. Each tower must be defeated in
order—the Base Tower, Tower of Infinitum and Tully’s Workshop—before you can
gain entry to the Tower of Naia and battle the raid monster Epidos before facing
the ultimate boss, Beleth.

The Steel Citadel and an encounter with Beleth
are just too tough for normal pre-Hellbound characters; with that in
mind, we raised the game’s level cap from 80 to 85, and added a series of new
high-level skills and quests to accompany the new level cap. Now a group of
super-powerful characters may be able to best the Steel Citadel and take
down Beleth.

Hellbound
features a lot of other further improvements and enhancements that players will
enjoy. For instance, players can now evolve their wolf pets into Fenrir wolves,
which can be mounted and ridden into combat. The Baby Buffalo, Baby Cougar, and
Baby Kookaburra can be further evolved into “improved” pets, making them better
companions. We’ve also raised the level cap for pets to 86. A host of new common
and rare transformations are now available, allowing characters to morph into
various creatures or even raid bosses for short periods.

Like most updates, we’ve also added all kinds of
new weapons, armor and other goods players can collect. All new top-level S-80
grade weapons and armor can be acquired, such as the Icarus Hammer and Wingblade,
or the Dynasty Jewel Leather Armor. A new type of Agathion will also be
available—Agathions are a different kind of pet (essentially really small, cute
companions) that can perform a special trick when you’re fighting.

Lineage II
features un-rivaled PvP combat on a large scale, and our recent updates have
done a lot to make it even better. Clans wage long-term sieges over nine
distinct castles. For those not involved in clans, or who are in smaller clans,
we developed a Fortress Battle system, where small groups of players can
participate and still get lots of benefits and access to specialized merchants
(who sell some cool items). Both of these systems have seen additional changes
with Hellbound; clans now have to be even more powerful to participate in
castle sieges, and clan leaders who possess a Fortress can now summon and ride a
Wyvern into battle.

To round out Hellbound, players will be
able to do even more fun things on Fantasy Isle. If you ever wanted to know what
a specific NPC looked like, just wait awhile on the Isle and eventually a parade
of colorful personas will make their way through each area, roughly four times a
day. Players can also participate in the Underground Coliseum, where they can
gather in teams and battle each other in a series of deadly matches.